1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to digital image and text processing and, more particularly, to a system and method for maintaining a specific device work history that is accessible to the device's client.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a job is printed from a client computer to a digital imaging device, scanned from a digital imaging device to a client, a fax job sent from/to a digital imaging device, or a document transferred to/from a digital imaging device through a print/scan/fax subsystem, the history of the job is generally not retained after completion. The history may include actions such as job completion, error, and/or restart.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional print subsystem (prior art). Conventionally, the print subsystem on a computing system, such as illustrated by the Microsoft Windows® family of operating systems, only reports on spooled jobs that have not been completely despooled to a printing device. For example, if a user sends 3 print jobs to a printer, the user might see the following through the local print monitor:
1. 1st Job is despooling from client to printer                Job 1 Printing        Job 2 Spooled        Job 3 Spooled        
2. 1st Job is fully despooled and 2nd job is despooling to the printer:                Job 2 Printing        Job 3 Spooled        
3. 2nd Job is fully despooled and the 3rd job is despooling to the printer:                Job 3 Printing        
The above monitoring system has several problems, such as:
1. If an error occurs after the printer has acknowledged acceptance of a print job, for example, the job is fully raster image processed (RIP'd), internally queued, or on hold queue for manual release, there is no record of the event reported back to the monitor.
2. Once a job is fully despooled by the local and/or network spooler, there is no retained job history. For example, such history could be used to confirm that a lost job was printed (or not), and provide a job location/time.
FIG. 2 is a diagram of a print subsystem with a post-despooling job status monitor (prior art). In the current art, there are several methods for attempting to improve on the print subsystem of FIG. 1. One such method is illustrated by Sharp's Status Monitor SMON®. In this product, the network address of the local client is embedded in the print job, and a monitoring process is run in the background (i.e., asynchronous to the despooling of the print job) on the client machine. When the printer successfully outputs the print job, or detects an error, a job status message is sent back to the monitoring device on the local client machine, using the network address of the client machine.
While this method does allow for the status of the current print job to be reported back to the user throughout the print job lifecycle, including interruption and resumption, until final paper out, this method still suffers in that:
1. The monitor is not integrated with print spooler/subsystem. The current job status as reported by the device is not reflected in the printer monitor.
2. There is no logging and reporting of past job history.
FIG. 3 is a diagram depicting an SNMP trap print subsystem (prior art). U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,151, Network Printing System, assigned to Hitachi Koki Imaging System, discloses an invention where the network address of the local client is embedded in the print job. A monitoring process is run that registers a document specific SNMP trap with the device. When the printer successfully outputs the print job, or detects an error, an SNMP document specific message, indicating the status of the job, is sent back to the monitoring device on the local client machine, using the client's network address.
This method is still deficient in that:
1. The local client must be able to register the SNMP trap with the device.
2. The invention does not disclose a method for integrating the status with the existing print spooler/subsystem for reporting by the printer monitor.
3. The invention does not disclose a method for logging job history.
FIG. 4 is a diagram depicting a printer subsystem relying upon an email communication link (prior art). US published pending patent application 20020057449, Method and Apparatus for Automatically Communicating Returning Status and Information from a Printer using Electronic Mail (email), describes a method where the email address of the user initiating the print job is embedded in the print job. When the printer successfully outputs the print job, or detects an error, an email message is sent back to the user.
This method is still deficient in that:
1. The message is not real-time. The user must poll the email server.
2. Email is not integrated with print spooler/subsystem for reporting by the printer monitor. Print jobs may be deleted by a spooler before they can be reported.
3. The application does not disclose a method for logging job history.
FIG. 5 is a diagram depicting an imaging device storage embodiment (prior art). The method internally logs the completion of imaging jobs, such as print/scan/fax job, in the device's non-volatile storage, such as a hard disk. The user can then view the status of jobs that are queued, printing, or past printed from the device's front panel display. The Sharp AR-350/450 digital imaging devices are examples of this method. This method still suffers in that:
1. No status is available for jobs still in local/network spooler queues, that is, jobs not yet despooled to the device.
2. No access is available to job status/history from a client computing device. A user must directly interface with the device.
3. No job filtering is performed, to provide only the user's specific jobs. That is, all jobs are shown.
FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting a printer subsystem web embodiment (prior art). This device provides the information concerning jobs queued, printing, or past printed on the device, from a device-based web page. The web page provides the user with a means to view this information from the client computing device. This method is still limited for the reasons mentioned above.
FIG. 7 is a diagram depicting a print subsystem port monitor embodiment (prior art). This method maintains a history of jobs despooled from the computing device, to the printer, via the port monitor. In this case, each print job despooled from the client to the printer goes through a port monitor. The port monitor implements the transport and bi-directional communication between the client and printer. The port monitor can then log each job and job status outcome, as determinable. An application could then be used to present the user with a past job history list. The Ricoh Smart Net Monitor is an example of this method.
This method still suffers in that:
1. Job status is dependent on client's concept of job completion. The job status, as known by the device, is not reflected in the port monitor.
2. Jobs that are queued or held in the device appear to be (already) printed.
3. The job history may or may not be merged with local queued jobs.
Although only printer-specific jobs have been mentioned above, other imaging devices, such as a scanner, fax, or document archive/retrieval and transfer devices, can spool and post-process imaging jobs, through a printer or other imaging subsystem. These scan/fax/document jobs also suffer in the same manner of incomplete monitoring and job history. Further, although the job history problem has been described in the context of imaging devices, the problems associated with maintaining and accessing a job history are applicable to a broader class of jobs and job-performing devices.
It would be advantageous if a client could easily access a list of jobs performed on a client-connected device.
It would be advantageous if the above-mentioned accessed job list could automatically be filtered to provide only a client-specific job history.